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The purpose of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida. This blog presents ideas and information to further the cause of Florida's native plants and ecosystems.

In addition to being beautiful and supporting local wildlife, here are a few of the more quantifiable benefits. Trees:
- clean the air.In 1991, Chicago's 51 million trees “removed an
estimated 17 tons of carbon monoxide, 93 tons of sulfur dioxide, 98
tons of nitrogen dioxide, 210 tons of ozone, and 234 tons of particulate
matter. They [also] sequestered about 155,000 tons of carbon. ... where trees were large and lush, they could
improve air quality by as much as 15 percent during the hottest hours of
midday. More trees and bigger trees meant cleaner air." (What Is a Tree Worth)

- absorb water. A full-grown oak tree can absorb 400 gallons of water on a summer's day. In the article cited above, a study of New York City's 592,000 "...street trees reduced stormwater runoff
by nearly 900 million gallons each year, saving the city $35.6 million
it would have had to spend to improve its stormwater systems. The
average street tree intercepted 1,432 gallons, a service worth $61, a
figure large enough to impress cost-conscious city managers." In Jacksonville, a beautiful bioswale designed to absorb stormwater has attracted some positive attention. Pollution Solution: Lasalle Bioswale Project. But you don't have to be a big city to build a rain garden, see my rain garden articles starting with this one: Rain lilies for my rain gardens., which includes links to other articles on this topic.

- cool the air in two ways. The most obvious method is the shade that trees cast. Proper placement of trees can save you significant money in your utility bills. In the "What is a Tree Worth" article mentioned above, a study in Sacramento, California "revealed that a tree planted to the west of a house saved about three
times more energy ($120 versus $39) in a year than the same kind of tree
planted to the south." The trick is to use a groups deciduous trees that will be large enough and close enough to shade the building, but not so large or close so that they could cause damage.

Secondly, much like when you sweat, a tree cools the air around it when water evaporates from its leaves. Of all the water absorbed by trees only 5 to 10% of of it is actually used by the tree in photosynthesis and other cellular activities. The vast majority of the absorbed water evaporates into the air via the pores (stomata) in the leaves and in some cases young stems that are green. This process is called transpiration, which is a passive process driven by the big suck of the
evaporation from the leaves. For
more information on transpiration see my post Water Science for Gardeners.

Red maples (Acer rubrum) really stand out in the fall.

Early spring the red maples are red again with seeds.

Plant provenance

Red maples are excellent trees for your landscape, but they are native up the east coast all the way into Canada. Those Canadian trees will NOT do well in Florida even though they are the same species. So purchase your trees from nurseries that sell only locally-bred plants. Go to www.PlantRealFlorida.org to find a nursery near you or to find a specific plant.

Trees support the wildlife in your ecosystem.

If possible, leave the remnants of forest on your property. Failing that, try to build a new patch of forest made up of compatible species that would have been there if development had not occurred.

Florida's Arbor Day

While most of the country celebrates Arbor Day in April, both Florida and Louisiana
celebrate Arbor Day the third Friday in January. It’s much better to plant a tree now because deciduous trees are
dormant and others are less active, so they can withstand the shock of
transplanting better. One thing to keep in mind is that January is right
in the middle of our 7-month dry season. Extra irrigation over and
above the rain and general landscape irrigation will be needed until the trees become established. Larger trees take longer, so if you are not willing or able to provide all that extra water for several months and in dry periods for a couple of years, purchase smaller specimens.

Introduction: Purple berries clinging around stems with bright green foliage make Callicarpa americana stand out from late summer to winter. It is easy to see how beautyberry got its common name. Don’t let its looks fool you though; Callicarpa is more than just eye candy. Callicarpa americana is useful medicinally and as food for wildlife and people. American Beautyberry is not fussy about location, soil or light requirements. This tough plant is an American Beauty in every sense of the word. Its name comes from Greek: Kalli, means beautiful; Karpos means fruit.

Historic Medicinal Uses:
Native Americans had many uses for beautberry, both internally and externally. According to Taylor (1940), Native Americans used beautyberry externally as a steam and topical application. All parts of the pla…

﻿ ﻿Australian pines seem to be everywhere in the coastal regions in the bottom half of Florida. Their name is deceiving because, while they are native to Australia, they aren't pines or even conifers. They are flowering trees with separate male and female flowers, and what look like needles are really green twiglets with close-set circles of tiny leaves that drop at the first sign of a drought. In the photo to the right, the light-colored lines are where leaves where once attached. Most of the photosynthesis takes place in the twiglets.

There are three species of Australian pine (Casuarina spp) that have been imported into Florida for various purposes. They were widely planted to soak up the "swamps" in Florida, stabilize canals, and hold beaches. Unfortunately for Florida's ecosystems, the "pines" accomplished all this and more--like seeding prolifically, growing five feet or more per year, producing dense shade, and emitting an herbicide that kills most a…

These perky natives have numerous and endearing charms. Authors and growers disagree about the proper Latin name, but they are in complete agreement that more people should use more coonties in their landscapes.

What's to like?
Coonties are spritely and graceful in their form, tough as the dickens, bright green all year, and host plant for the beautiful blue atala
hairstreak butterfly. In fact, coonties are the only larval food for atalas. You can use them as specimen or accent plants, mass them together for ground cover, or use them in a line as a border. And to top that off, they have an interesting sex life. A subject we hardly ever get to talk about around here. More on that later. See more in Roger Hammer's 1995 Palmetto article, The Coontie and the Atala Hairstreak.

Slow growers, coonties are more expensive to buy than some other natives by relative size, but don't let that put you off. They are well worth the investment. They can be planted in full sun or fairly …